Does $validate actually create the resource?

1

Hi! Here’s a newbie quesiton for you:

I am learning how to use REST and how to validate resources using the $validate tool. So I am POST-ing resources to $validate and it is giving me very useful results.

But when I do this, and it is successful, it actually looks like the resources are being created and saved to the FHIR Server. For some reason, I didn’t think this would happen. I just want my FHIR Server to check my resource structure and validate it for now … not actually save it! Am I doing something wrong?

2

according to the documentation $validate does not mention anything about creating the resource, this looks like an additional feature of the server. with which server does this happen?

3

Servers are allowed to have side effects on operations, though this is certainly an unusual (and likely undesirable) side effect. I would certainly take it up with the server author.

4

Thanks! I will double-check to confirm this what is hapenning. Will update this discussion with my results.

5

Whoops! Turns out this issue was PEBCAK… ie my own fault. Thank you for clarifying how $validate should not actually create the resource you are validating.

6

Wait … to add to this issue. Do you know how to use $validate on a bundle? This is where I seem to be running into problems.

7

You’re trying to validate a Bundle, or you’re posting a Bundle of validate operation invocations? Validating a Bundle should be the same as any other resource…

8

I am trying to validate a bundle. If I POST a bundle to

 https://server.fire.ly/$validate

it works fine. But if I do the same to:

 https://lforms-fhir.nlm.nih.gov/baseR4/$validate

then it fails with this error: Invalid request: The FHIR endpoint on this server does not know how to handle POST operation[$validate] with parameters [[]]

Not sure how to interpret that second error message.

9

The $validate operation is defined on the Resource or Resource Type ( [base]/[Resource]/$validate | [base]/[Resource]/[id]/$validate) link, try https://lforms-fhir.nlm.nih.gov/baseR4/Bundle/$validate